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Mustapha
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Information About

Mustapha




For the Arabic name, see Mustafa

  Name Mustapha
  Cover Mustagerjpg
  Artist Queen
  From Album Jazz
  Released 1979 <small>( Bolivia , Germany , Spain and Yugoslavia only)</small>
  Format Vinyl Record (7")
  Recorded 1978
  Genre Hard Rock </br> Neo-progressive Rock
  Label EMI
  Writer Freddie Mercury
  Producer Queen and Roy Thomas Baker
  Last Single " Don't Stop Me Now "<br/>(1978) <br/>" Jealousy "<br/>(1979)
  This Single "'''Mustapha'''"<br/>(1979)
  Next Single " Love Of My Life " (live)<br/>(1979)



"Mustapha" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and recorded by English Rock Band Queen . It is the first track of their 1978 album '' Jazz ''. "Mustapha" was released as a single in 1979, although it didn't cause much of an impact on the single charts.

The lyrics consist mostly of Arabic -sounding nonsense. The only actual words are " Mustapha ", " Ibrahim " and the phrases " Allah , Allah, Allah we'll pray for you", " Salaam Aleikum " and "aleikum salaam". The rest is improvised words like "ichna klibhra him" and "rabbla fihmtrashim". The song was never intended to be taken seriously, but many critics misunderstood the song (and the entire album). Fans are split when it comes to "Mustapha"; some think that the song is a great example on Queen's humour and others think it is just non-sense.

In live performances, Mercury would often sing the opening vocals of "Mustapha" in place of the complex introduction to " Bohemian Rhapsody ", going from "Allah we'll pray for you" to "Mama, just killed a man...". However, sometimes the band performed an almost full version of the song, with Mercury at the piano. They dropped the second verse and went from the first chorus to the third. Also notable is that the song was oftenly requested by the audience, as can be heard on '' Live Killers ''.

Although some fans believe that Mercury could speak more languages because of the lyrics of this song (and others such as " La Japonaise " and parts of "Bohemian Rhapsody"), he only knew English and perhaps Gujarati or Hindi , because of his Indian background and education in India.